Tuesday 9th June

Today our time in California came to an end - we left on a late afternoon train for Flagstaff, Az. So after catching up with washing and ironing (and other boring stuff) we took a final walk to the pier to watch the surfers and treated ourselves to a ’must have’ Coldstones ice cream. It was lovely. Then - guess what - we went to the shops again!. This time just essential items needed from the drug store.

Back to Dorothy’s for lunch and after a final check and closing of our suitcases D. took us to Irvine train station where we caught the 4.37pm Amtrak to LA where we had to change for another train to Flagstaff. It was sad taking our farewells of Dorothy - we have had a fun couple of weeks with her.

This first leg of the journey took around one hour. LA Union Street station was enormous and somewhat confusing but we eventually found the baggage check in for our luggage then waited patiently in the waiting area for our train to be announced, as we were told it would be. Over a period of time, and to our dismay, we noticed that the number of people waiting in this area gradually decreased although no announcements were made, so we put our two brain cells together and decided that we ought to ask an Amtrak official - who told us that the train was ready for boarding on platform 11. So off we went.

It was again a train with an ‘upstairs’ and our coach was once again next to the viewing coach. The train left on time at 6.45pm and we watched the sun set from the panoramic viewing lounge. We decided to book dinner in the Dining Car on this journey - just really for something to do to break up the 10 hour journey and we were called in to dinner at 8pm. Very nice!

We spent the night on the train and managed to get some sleep stretched out on the seats. Luckily Amtrak give plenty of leg space and the seats are like comfortable armchairs. They also hand out pillows. We were due to arrive in Flagstaff just after 5am tomorrow morning.